دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی تاثیر مسیر بر روی درک کیفیت خدمات حمل و نقل عمومی - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

User satisfaction is a key indicator of public service quality, especially for those services considered basic necessities. The conceptualization and measurement of transport service quality—a fundamental determinant of demand—poses challenges for conducting economic analyses and designing mobility policies. Several operating companies are involved in the transport sector. In this paper, the bus network of the metropolitan area of Granada, Spain, is taken as a case study. The aim is to design a model of overall satisfaction based on level of satisfaction using a specific set of factors that take into account the individual characteristics of users and the differential effect of using different bus lines. A combined method using nonlinear principal component analysis (NLPCA) and a logit multilevel model (LMLM) in two steps is applied to a satisfaction survey conducted by the Metropolitan Transport Consortium of Granada (Consorcio de Transporte Metropolitano del área de Granada) in 2013. The survey shows that even though customers within the metropolitan area of Granada are satisfied with the service received (67.26%), the level of satisfaction is not equal for all bus lines, with the perceived quality of some lines being above or below the average. This differential effect is due to different reasons, including the technical and functional performance of the operating companies, commercial speed and length and type of route, among others. Both the operators and the public administration need to focus their attention on these lines in order to design economic policy measures to improve bus lines with below standard compliance.

Conclusions

This research aims to establish the determinants of satisfaction with public transport services in order to develop an interpretative model of perceived quality. To this end, various statistical and econometric techniques have been applied to data from the satisfaction survey conducted in among users in 2013 by the Metropolitan Transport Consortium of Granada, Spain. The research has shown that quality of service is a multidimensional concept where technical and functional aspects of service provision have considerable importance. The analysis has also revealed the existence of a stable framework for significant variables that explain the perception of quality. Moreover, the findings of the interpretive model of public transport service quality of are primarily based on unobservable effects that affect each bus line and other observable variables that can be grouped into two categories: the Comfort Factor and the Services Supply Factor. The Comfort Factor constitutes the functional dimension and the Services Supply Factor provides the technical dimension for this model. The survey from which data was drawn to conduct the analysis shows that even though customers within the metropolitan area of Granada are satisfied with the service received (67.26%), satisfaction is not homogenous across all bus lines. This indicates that the users of different bus lines do not perceive quality the same way; an assumption on which the transport authority intuitively worked. Indeed, the perceived quality of some lines is above or below the average perceived quality. This differential behaviour may be due to different reasons, including the functional and technical performance of the operating companies, the commercial speed of the buses, the type of route and bus stop density, among others. Both operators and the public administration will therefore have to focus their attention on these lines in order to design measures to improve those with below standard compliance (Ongkittikul and Geerlings, 2006).